Beyond Human-Centered Design: Toward Ecocentric Thinking

The chapter reflects on the limits of the human-centered approach to design amid the ecological crisis and the potential of ecocentric thinking to inform architectural production. It employs a qualitative methodology based on conceptual analysis of selected literature and comparative case studies of Bosco Verticale in Milan and The High Line in New York. The cases are examined through four aspects: the human subject in (re)design, ecological interdependence, multispecies coexistence and non-human agency, and the built environment as an ecological interface. The analysis highlights the need to reconsider anthropocentric attitudes in architecture. It also identifies opportunities for using vegetation and landscape features to support non-human life, while emphasizing the importance of maintenance, resource consumption, habitat connectivity, and environmental impacts. The built environment as an ecological interface is proposed as a conceptual framework for architectural practice in the context of ecology.